Cheese is seen after production at Jasper Hill Farm. The Greensboro company was among two Vermont cheesemakers that won top awards at a nation competition. / Free Press file

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Free Press Staff Writer

Vermont cheesemakers took the top two prizes at a national cheese contest.

Cellars of Jasper Hill won Best of Show at the 2013 American Cheese Society competition. Jasper Hill Farm, based in Greensboro, was founded 10 years ago by brothers Andy and Mateo Kehler.

The first-place cheese, Winnimere, is a collaboration with Hill Farmstead Brewery, an award-winning craft brewer and Jasper Hill neighbor.

“The reason we won is that we have the best team,” Mateo Kehler said Monday afternoon. Jasper Hill employs 35 people.

Grafton Village Cheese won second prize with Bear Hill, a sheep’s milk cheese.

Vermont’s double victory took place in a competition in Madison, Wis., in which 257 cheese producers entered 1,794 products.

“The message I want to put out about this win, and this idea of terroir, is that terroir is actually people,” Kehler said. “And I am more excited about the community that was able to produce this product than the win and the product itself.”

Terroir, from the French word for land, describes the idea that a certain place confers on food a particular taste: that landscape, geography, climate and soil are among the factors that create the flavors of cheese, wine, fruit and other foods.

Among the three factors that make the creamy seasonal cheese “terroir cubed,” Kehler said, is that it is made from the winter milk of the farm’s Ayrshire cows.

In addition, the cambium stripped from the bark of spruce trees harvested on the Greensboro farm is used to bind the cheese.

“That in itself is an art and a labor of love,” Kehler said. It is an act performed by a Jasper Hill neighbor who spends from April to October in the woodlot, Kehler said.

Kehler said he knows of two other cheeses — one produced in France and one in Switzerland — that are wrapped in bark. “They’re both stunning cheeses,” he said, “but I think ours is better.”

The third element of terroir is the Hill Farmstead beer, called Jasper, the yeast for which is spontaneously fermented in the milkhouse. Jasper beer is used to wash the cheese. It will likely be bottled for sale in the coming year, Kehler said.

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Jasper Hill won best in show at the American Cheese Society competition in 2006 with the cloth-bound cheddar it produces with Cabot.

The cheese was aged in Jasper Hill Farm’s basement (before it was called Cellars of Jasper Hill), then a 1,200-square foot aging facility under the production space.

At the time of the win, there were 25 wheels of cloth-bound cheddar available, Kehler said. The situation is similar with the seasonal Winnimere, which will not be available for several months.

Winnimere is made with the rich milk of winter, when the cows come off pasture and start eating dry hay, Kehler said. The milk is richer in fats and proteins; the cheese from which it is made will be ready in December.

“Here we go again,” Kehler said. “Everybody is just going to have to wait till December. We’re going to make as much as we possibly can. Our production is limited by the scale of the farm, and our farm is scaled to our land.”

The Kehlers milk 47 cows at their Greensboro farm.

Jasper Hill used its 2006 win as a springboard for creating a bigger business, the infrastructure — including a multi-million dollar aging cave — for making, packaging and shipping artisanal cheese, Kehler said.

“Our intent was not just to age a bunch of cheddar cheese for Cabot, but to use and leverage our relationship with Cabot and its delicious product to really address some of the challenges that a farmstead cheesemaker faces on an ongoing basis.”

The cheesemakers plan to use the victory for Winnimere in a similar manner but with different particulars — and a move back to the basics: dairying.

Jasper Hill plans to help start dairy farms in the Northeast Kingdom, with its understanding that cheese production — a value added dairy product — is the “economic muscle” that makes makes dairying viable, Kehler said.

“We’re building the market and we’re building the product,” Kehler said. “We’re going to plug farms into that market.”

The intent is to “colonize the landscape with cheese,” Kehler said. “It’s the mechanism to keep the landscape working in our neck of the woods. ...

“We’re a social enterprise. That’s really how I describe what we’re doing here.”